Those that were awake Saturday morning before the first rooster crowed could feel it in the air. I stepped out on the porch well before sunrise. The air felt great. Summer is slowly losing its tight grip on the Miss-Lou.
The air actually had a bit of a nip to it. Of course by noon it was too hot to walk barefoot on concrete but nevertheless, summer is winding down.
September is a transition month in the fishing world. When the upper layer of water begins to cool off baitfish will move shallow and stay shallow for the most part.
Where there’s baitfish the game fish will be nearby.
September marks the beginning of my fishing season. I try my best to come up with reasons and excuses not to fish in August. There is nothing fun about sitting out in a boat and smelling yourself cook while working hard to catch what you can, which is normally next to nothing.
By mid-September many people will store their boats and fishing equipment while those that know what is about to happen do the opposite.
The sac-a-lait bite will improve tenfold as the water cools down. The perch may still be hanging over deep water, but they will suspend anywhere from 6- to 12-feet deep. This holds true for the perch in the Old Rivers for sure.
Right now with the heat still on, the perch are suspended over water as deep as 35 to 45 feet, but the fish are not on the bottom.
The best way to catch the suspended fish that are relating more to baitfish than cover is to drift fish with multiple poles rigged with various jigs and maybe a live minnow if the jig bite is off.
A good sonar unit is a must when targeting suspended fish. Just idle around until you see the little blips and smudges on the sonar screen that are at a consistent depth. Once you determine the right depth just set all your lures at that depth.
The bass will really come alive this coming month. When surface water temperatures are hot enough to almost boil an egg, bass tend to go nocturnal. The bass lie up in thick cover during the day and feed at night.
As the water cools down the baitfish will move shallow, and the bass will be right behind.
Crank baits or any lure that will allow you to cover a lot of water fast work well in September. Once the surface water temperature drops below 85 degrees you should breakout the surface lures. Buzz baits and any one of the many walking, popping or chugging lures will catch the bass in mid- to late-September and on into late November.
Thinking back it is hard to recall a summer like we just experienced. This has been the hottest and driest summer I can recall. I boated around Lake Concordia a couple of days ago. I was not fishing much. I was just looking. I took mental notes and marked a few waypoints on a GPS.
The big cypress trees that normally hold fish are now sitting on dry ground; I know why the fish hold around these thick root systems when the lake is at a normal level.
Lake Concordia’s water level is about as low as I have seen it in 35-plus years.
Hopefully, along with cooler air temperatures, September will bring us some much needed rain. If the boards are back on the weir by then and we get some rain the lake will hold the water and the fishing will improve.
As of today the boards on top of Lake Concordia’s weir are still not in place. The spring rains were allowed to run out of the lake which in turn made the fishing as tough as it can get on Lake Concordia.

Eddie Roberts writes a weekly fishing column for The Democrat. He can be reached at fishingwitheddie@bellsouth.net.